Catholic sex scandals

[mathinspiration]

Is it the current pope's fault? He cannot force his priests to behave What can be done about it?

 

[TuxAme]

The Pope doesn't own priests, so they aren't his priests; they belong to God.

 

[Monk Brendan]

Is it the current pope's fault? He cannot force his priests to behave What can be done about it?

Some people--mostly Protestants--think that everything gets micro-managed by Rome.

It doesn't and really never did.

 

[HTacianas]

Is it the current pope's fault? He cannot force his priests to behave What can be done about it?

The sex abuse scandal in the Roman Church has been going on for one hundred years, so it's hardly the fault of the current Pope.

That scandal in the Church is no different from the sex abuse scandals in any other organization, the Boy Scouts being an example. Looking at the Boy Scouts scandal, the way institutional sexual abuse of children was dealt with was by removing the abuser from the environment the abuse was found in the mistaken hope that the abuse would stop.

In many cases the Boy Scouts reported the abuse and it was in fact law enforcement that cut deals with the abusers, declining to prosecute if the abuser would stay away from children.

So we have the Roman Church, the Boy Scouts, law enforcement, and *many other organizations* all following the same "model" in order to end the abuse and avoid a public scandal. That model failed.

Now, the model is to report all abuse to law enforcement for prosecution regardless of public scandal. That includes the Roman Church, *many other church groups*, and other organizations facing the same crisis.

 

[Basil the Great]

Pope Francis has done more to address the problem than any other Pope. Yes, it took him a few years to get deadly serious about the issue, but he finally did with the recent meeting in Rome and the mandate that every abuse charge must be reported to civil authorities.

What else can be done to solve the problem? I do not know. I suppose that the ban on married priests could be lifted, but all evidence seems to indicate that such a move would only have a marginal impact on the problem.

 

[Dave-W]

What else can be done to solve the problem? I do not know. I suppose that the ban on married priests could be lifted, but all evidence seems to indicate that such a move would only have a marginal impact on the problem.

I agree. While I do not approve of the ban on married priests; the evidence is that other groups where the leadership IS married have similar problems to the Catholics. That means the celibate priesthood is NOT the culprit.

What the MeToo movement has shown is that it is more a function of the imbalance of power between male superiors and female underlings.